Don't skip my blog just because I am a child

Michael Morpurgo gave the Richard Dimbleby lecture last night on children's rights. It was an inspiring lecture that really touched me. He referred to the UN Convention on Children's Rights. Some of the things mentioned in there are so basic that you wouldn't even think that there are children in the world to whom these do not apply i.e right to a name and a right to play.

I take these things for granted. What Michael Morpurgo said reminded me of  a scene from the movie called 'Kite Runner' where the children in an orphanage in Afghanistan had to hide when the Taliban came because children get shot down if they get in the way. Children should not have to run to safety everyday. The orphanage was so over crowded and dirty and the children were ill as a result. These are 'Rights of Survival' mentioned in the UN Convention and they should be given without question to children all around the world.

Michael Morpurgo spoke about his experience in Gaza, he said "I heard shots, then the screaming, saw the kids running to help their wounded freinds. Now i really was outside the comfort zone of fiction. There was blood, his trousers were soaked in it, the bullets were real. I saw the boy close to, saw his agony as the cart rushed by me. many like him, the doctor told me, ended up maimed for life".

Scenes like this usually only happen in LEDCs (Less Economically Developed Countries) and countries which are at war. Children are always the innocent victims in decisions taken by Governments. When Governments create policies they need to prioritise children more highly.

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